National Blog

Worse than ObamaCare?

That’s how a senior staffer for the House Financial Services Committee described Dodd-Frank. As Dr. Ron Paul discussed last week, one of the worst things about Dodd-Frank is it created the Consumers Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which actually protects big banks from competition by imposing regulations that the big banks can afford to comply with, but are a burden on small banks and credit unions.

The CPFB is not accountable to Congress since it receives funding directly from the Federal Reserve -- not from Congress. The reason for this arrangement was probably because at the time of Dodd-Frank's passage, it was clear that Republicans would be able to ride the wave of opposition to ObamaCare, cap-and-tax, the stimulus, and other policies to make significant gains in the House and Senate. Thus, the drafters of Dodd-Frank wanted to do everything they could to protect the agency from scrutiny and budget cuts imposed by a majority less friendly to Elizabeth Warren’s brainchild. (Yes, CPFB is the brainchild of then-Harvard professor and future Senator Elizabeth Warren).

Acting CFPB chair Mick Mulvaney has tried to bring the rogue agency under control, and his likely successor Kathy Kraninger will hopefully continue his efforts, but Congress should act to dismantle the CFPB along with the rest of Dodd-Frank.